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I’m a big fan of The Story of Film: An Odyssey, the Irish critic Mark Cousins’ eccentric, selective and Quixotically ambitious documentary series on, well, the story of film. So I was stoked to hear that TCM will start showing the series in its entirety starting Sept. 2, along with a 15-week, 119-film festival to celebrate the occasion.

From the new press release:

“Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film: An Odyssey is a fascinating, brilliant documentary series that takes viewers beyond Hollywood to trace the history of cinema on a global scale,” said Charles Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM, “and it offers us the perfect opportunity to explore an incredibly broad range of films from around the world. With TCM in its 20th year, this is the ideal time to exhibit this important series, curated with an expansive lineup that includes well-known and highly acclaimed masterpieces, along with underappreciated, yet important and influential films. More than anything we’ve ever done before, this 15-week event represents TCM’s deep commitment to the history and celebration of film.”

The schedule is staggering. How staggering, you ask? Take a look after the jump. All times are EST. Bon appetit.

I’m a sucker for documentaries about film, especially when they come with a deep pool of knowledge and a slightly eccentric point of view. So it stands to reason I’ve become addicted to The Story of Film: An Odyssey, Mark Cousins‘ 15-part series currently streaming on Netflix (and also available on YouTube).

Story played the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and I made the mistake of believing some of the bad press it got there. Cousins, an Irish film historian/critic, does make some odd choices, especially when he captures real-life street scenes that demonstrate the style or locale under discussion. His deliberative narration takes a little getting used to as well.

But once you get into the series’ rhythm it emerges as a goldmine of analysis and footage. Cousins is a master of reading films, cross-referencing them and placing them in historical context. I’m still early in the series but so far my favorite episode is No. 3, “The Golden Age of World Cinema.” Here Cousins takes in-depth looks at some early giants of international film, including Ernst Lubitsch, Abel Gance, Yasujiro Ozu, F.W. Murnau and many lesser-known lights. His analysis of Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin is particularly inspired.

Cousins loves film as well as he knows it. He conjures a contagious sense of wonder at a medium that has never stopped innovating.